March 11, 2014. Three years have passed since the disaster that hit Fukushima. Some may respond “already three years?” and others “only three years?” but all can agree that there is a long way left on the path to full reconstruction. What is always needed is encouragement for the people of Fukushima to hang together as they continue the struggle. That was the genesis of our project – a full page spread for a local Fukushima newspaper, to be published on March 11, 2014.
The spread featured a view of Mount Bandai, and was designed so that when it was opened and fixed to a wall, it would appear to be a window looking out on the mountain. Mount Bandai is the much loved heart of Fukushima, and our hope was that the “window” view would unite everyone living in the region, both from the hardest-hit and the relatively unscathed areas, as they embarked on a fourth year of rebuilding their home.
Six days later, on March 17, the newspaper featured a full page article about the project, reporting on their visit to a displaced family who had actually hung our “window” on the wall of their temporary housing.
The challenge was not merely to express this message in words and visuals, but to make the “window” appealing enough that people would feel moved to use it as intended. And while it had to be appealing and eye-catching, we also needed to take into account people’s emotional sensibilities on that day.
Of course, our project could not change the realities of the situation in the still recovering region. However, as people looked back on March 11 at the fateful events of three years earlier, many of them with only the darkest memories, our goal was to send a message of hope and inspiration as they move on into the fourth year from the disaster.